Athlete inspires students with learning differences

Maggie Gordon

Published 9:18 pm, Saturday, April 5, 2014

LeDerick Horne, national disability advocate and board member of Eye to Eye, speaks during "Helping Struggling Learners" at Westover Elementary School in Stamford, Conn., on Saturday, April 5, 2014.
Photo: Lindsay Perry

LeDerick Horne, national disability advocate and board member of...

Former NFL defensive tackle Jovan Haye speaks about his experience with dyslexia during "Helping Struggling Learners" at Westover Elementary School in Stamford, Conn., on Saturday, April 5, 2014.
Photo: Lindsay Perry

LeDerick Horne, national disability advocate and board member of Eye to Eye, speaks during "Helping Struggling Learners" at Westover Elementary School in Stamford, Conn., on Saturday, April 5, 2014.
Photo: Lindsay Perry

LeDerick Horne, national disability advocate and board member of...

Former NFL defensive tackle Jovan Haye speaks about his experience with dyslexia during "Helping Struggling Learners" at Westover Elementary School in Stamford, Conn., on Saturday, April 5, 2014.
Photo: Lindsay Perry

LeDerick Horne, national disability advocate and board member of Eye to Eye, speaks during "Helping Struggling Learners" at Westover Elementary School in Stamford, Conn., on Saturday, April 5, 2014.
Photo: Lindsay Perry

STAMFORD -- If someone had told Jovan Haye a couple decades ago that he'd write a book or speak on stage to people, sharing stories that bettered his life, he would have thought it was "the longest April Fool's joke ever," the retired NFL defensive tackle told a couple hundred people gathered at Westover Magnet Elementary School Saturday morning.

"Never in my life did I feel like my life would be worthy of putting in a book so others can see the things I've gone through, and that maybe one day this book could help them through their struggles," he said.

But then he opened up about his life story -- a young boy raised in Jamaica with no running water and a black-and-white television that played either "Days of Our Lives" or "Pink Panther," with a stutter that made pronouncing the word "dog" a polysyllabic feat and dyslexia that mystified his parents and teachers -- and suddenly, his story unfolded as a road map for those with difficulty.

Haye was one of several speakers who touched on troubles with learning differences Saturday morning during an informative session put on by Stamford resident Marc Hoffman. Hoffman is an advocate for the learning disabled who runs Eye to Eye, a nonprofit mentoring movement that matches school-aged children with learning differences with successful college and high school students who have had similar experiences.

The event was planned as a consciousness-raising program, offering a chance for families to "demystify" learning differences and connect with other families sharing their experiences in an effort to build community, said speaker LeDerick Horne, a poet and national disability advocate, who noted that when he was going through school, his mother felt one of the largest struggles in dealing with his learning differences was that she often felt alone.

For Haye, it was the day he stopped feeling alone that he felt he was able to begin making leaps toward living with his learning differences and turning them into strengths and motivations.

"I remember the day like it was yesterday," he said as he stood on the apron of the stage in Westover's auditorium. His English teacher asked to see him after class to talk about his struggles.

He sets the scene: After English class his first year of high school down in Florida, his English teacher asked him to stay after class to chat. Anxiety crept through him as the room cleared slowly and the teacher directed her attention to him.

"She said, `Hey Javon, you need to do better. We know what's in your file. We know you have dyslexia. But when you get a topic that you love, you're all in,' " he remembered. " `You sound normal, you sound like the rest of the students. But the second you get a subject you don't like, you tank, you become a nuisance. You don't try.' She said, `I understand what you're going through, but you have to stop using dyslexia as a way out, as a crutch.' "

And in that moment, his life was completely different.

"Never had someone actually sat me down and said, `Hey, you can do this,' " he said. "And I think that night, a light switch just turned on."

He stopped sitting at the back of his classrooms and asked the teachers if he could instead find a seat in the first row. He tried harder. Focused on more than sports. Set goals and met them.

And before he knew it, the 2.0 grade point average he'd feared having to hold onto to stay on the basketball team because it was "real, real high" was nothing. He graduated high school with a 4.5 GPA on a 4.0 scale and went on to Vanderbilt University.

"I want you guys to have a goal," he said to the families in the audience, many of whom knew his story from their own perspectives. "Have a mission. What are you striving toward? You young kids, children, young men, young women, if someone asks you what you want to be in life. Never should you say, `I don't know.' I don't know won't get you anywhere. Whatever it is, have something. Have something."